1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a musical performance self-training apparatus, and more specifically, relates to a musical performance self-training apparatus that can enable efficient lesson by designating a lesson part of music to be performed, corresponding to the skill level of a player in the musical performance for a given music.
The present invention also relates to a musical performance self-training apparatus that can avoid such a situation that the training becomes boring, by having a mode in which a player him/herself can determine the training progress and a mode in which the progress is instructed automatically.
Moreover, the present invention includes a musical performance judgment apparatus that can specifically evaluate if musical performance has been done as instructed by a performance instruction based on performance data prepared in advance.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known an apparatus which plays performance data stored in a recording medium by a personal computer, and displays an image representing sheet of music sequentially on a screen, to thereby give a performance instruction. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 9-305171, there is disclosed an apparatus which gives a performance instruction in a manner of a music box in which keys are instructed sequentially by graphical bars.
More specifically, in this apparatus, a figure of a keyboard is displayed on a screen, and a scroll bar having a length corresponding to the duration of key depression is also displayed corresponding to each key on the displayed keyboard, and this scroll bar is scrolled so that the scroll bar approaches the keyboard figure, as the auto-playing data is played.
According to this conventional performance instruction apparatus, the player can recognize the duration of key depression intuitively, and a key to be depressed subsequent to the key being depressed now can be known in advance. Therefore, even a player who cannot read the musical score can play smoothly, different from the apparatus which indicates performance with displaying the musical score.
However, with the conventional performance instruction apparatus, since the performance data is only played sequentially from the beginning which is monotonous, efficient training cannot be conducted and the player become bored. For example, it is quite difficult for a player, who is training for given music for the first time, to play from the top of the music to the very end all the way through. Moreover, even if the player interrupts on the way to return to the beginning, or return to a desired training part, it is troublesome and time-consuming to search the part to be played.
In a music the same phrase appears in a plurality of places, even when this phrase is mastered, when the player has the training all the way through, he/she has to play this phrase many times, and hence lesson may becomes boring. It is not efficient and not desirable to have repetitive training for the phrase mastered to a certain degree, from a viewpoint of mastering the entire music as soon as possible.
Therefore, a system in which the skill level of the entire music can be efficiently enhanced is desired, by avoiding repetition of training for the mastered phrase.
Moreover, even if there is a part which the player wants to train selectively, with the apparatus which advances training so that the entire music can be mastered at a certain skill level, selection of the training part or training progress against his/her will may be forced on the player.
In order to solve the above problem, a mode can be considered in which the player can freely determine the training progress to play, but if this mode is for freely playing far apart from the automatic mode in which the progress is instructed automatically, the relation between the automatic mode and this mode becomes weak, and hence consistent training cannot be performed. There is also a demand for a musical performance self-training apparatus, which keeps freedom in selecting progress by the player, while maintaining the training function by the automatic mode.
Furthermore, even if a player who cannot read the musical score can play certain music by an apparatus which displays a performance instruction in a manner of a music box, it is not applicable to a case in which another music is played, since the player is not able to become read the score. In other words, it is difficult to play without the performance instruction in the manner of the music box at all times.
Therefore, there is a demand for an apparatus which makes it possible not only to play particular music but also to finally play any music by reading a score, by appropriately adopting training by the score, while having training according to the performance instruction displayed in the manner of the music box.
Since the scroll bar is scrolled forward when a player has played at a right pitch, it stands by until the player plays at a right pitch, without proceeding to the next performance instruction. By this method, training can be steadily advanced, while confirming whether each note is played at the right pitch. However, according to this instruction method, the performance is standardized, and variations in performance are not allowed. Therefore, it is insufficient in view of enjoying the musical performance.
Therefore, a musical performance judgment apparatus, which is set such that even if the music performance is not conducted as instructed by the performance data, the music is advanced so long as the musical performance is within a range of a predetermined pitch, has been proposed (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-175072). In this publication, it is also disclosed that players can learn performance techniques while enjoying the music, by allowing liberal judgment for the performance of music having high degree of difficulty or by adjusting the judgment method and the judgment standard in the same performance data, depending on the age and ability.
As described above, it has been heretofore considered that a player has training while confirming the played tone one by one, to learn the key-on sequence, and then gives a musical performance along to the accompaniment and metronome sound, thereby the player can finally give a natural musical performance with good tempo.
However, with respect to the rudimentary training in which a player gives a musical performance while confirming the played note one by one, and the advanced training in which the player gives a musical performance along to the accompaniment and metronome sound, a single-level performance instruction cannot correspond to these various level of trainings, since the difference in degree of difficulty between these trainings is too large.
If the ability of a trainee is finely judged, to adjust the judgment method and the judgment standard for the training highly accurately, the trainee can give a musical performance reasonably, and improvement can be expected. However, the judgment method and the judgment standard have heretofore been adjusted only according to whether the pitch is as instructed.
Therefore, there is a demand for a system, which can multilaterally judge the performance result of a trainee to recognize the ability, and determine the judgment method and the judgment standard based on the ability.
There is also proposed an apparatus which can output performance evaluation during performance or after finishing the performance (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-242863). Moreover, there is known an apparatus in which when the music has not been played as instructed, for example, when a key of the right note has not been pressed, the next performance instruction is not given, nor the performance is not evaluated.
However, if the performance instruction is stopped when a player has not played correctly, a problem may occur. When the player has noticed a miss-touch, he/she can replay again immediately, but if the player has noticed a miss-touch after having played for a while, he/she must return to the beginning to give a performance again. In this case, since the evaluation after having stopped the performance instruction is not given, the player cannot know the performance evaluation, and must return to the beginning to give a performance again, without being convinced.
With such a performance instruction apparatus, the player pays attention only to the performance instruction, and cannot enjoy the performance. Trill, tremolo and the like are ways of rendition finely repeating a plurality of notes, but the number of repetition should be essentially left to the sensibility of the player. With the conventional performance instruction apparatus, however, if the number of repetition is not performed as instructed, the performance instruction is not advanced forward. Therefore, there is a demand for an apparatus which enables performance by giving much weight to the performance flow, and which can express the sensibility of the player.
In a conventional performance instruction apparatus, a player can only get information, which can be read from notes and a clef described on a musical score, and information indicating the performance timing. However, higher performance technique such as fingering cannot be understood from the musical score. Moreover, a beginner may not be able to understand the meaning of the sign written on the musical score.
As described above, in order to actually give a good performance, there are matters which a player should know other than the information expressed by the musical score, but in the conventional performance instruction apparatus, the information cannot be informed. Therefore, there is a demand for means with which the player can search the information, which is not written in the musical score, as required.